Vineta Gafford McCall, 86, died on November 3, 2025 at Tallgrass Creek Senior Living Community, Overland Park, Kansas following several years of illness caused by frontotemporal dementia. 

Neta was born on September 15, 1939, in Texarkana, Texas, to Dr. N. B. Gafford and Beulah Armstrong Gafford.  Her family lived in several cities in east and central Texas, including Sulphur Springs, where she graduated from high school in 1957.  Active in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Neta attended Texas Christian University in Ft. Worth, majoring in pre-med and religion.  She received her Bachelor’s Degree in 1961, having served as President of Alpha Delta Pi Sorority in her senior year.  She then studied at M. D. Anderson Cancer Hospital in Houston, Texas, and became a Registered Medical Technologist.

On August 7, 1964, Neta was married to the Rev. George A. McCall, a Presbyterian minister from Weatherford, Texas.  Two sons were born to this union, Donovan Gafford McCall and Mark Adrian McCall.  Through the years the family lived where George served Presbyterian churches, in Silsbee, Texas;  Hutchinson and Wichita, Kansas; Pasadena California, Columbia, Missouri, and Overland Park, Kansas.

As her children grew up, Neta chose to be a stay-at-home mother.  From time to time she served as a nanny, caring for a number of small children, who loved her and considered her a family member.  A natural caregiver, Neta was also known for her committed and loving care for friends experiencing terminal illness.  She was active in church work, sometime volunteering in the church office, and, more often, being involved in kitchen ministry and food service.  In Pasadena, she was a valued member of the “Muffin Ministry,” a group that provided Wednesday evening meals which opened the way for a number of youth and other meetings and activities.  Also in Pasadena, Neta was employed at Polytechnic School as a receptionist and computer expert, where she was a beloved and respected colleague.

Following her husband’s retirement, Neta joined Central Presbyterian Church, Kansas City, Missouri, where she was soon elected an elder, serving several terms.  She was active in mission activity, directing the clothes closet portion of the church’s food pantry.  Over a span of several years, she led a successful modernizing of the church’s financial posture, researching and recovering data concerning wills and trusts and writing a manual for managing these matters. 

In 2009, following months of training, Neta (at age 69) participated in a three-day sixty-mile hike in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, a Susan Komen “Walk for the Cure,” raising thousands of dollars for breast cancer treatment. She was the second oldest woman in the walk.

Neta McCall was a person of multiple interests and talents. She owned numerous kites and particularly enjoyed flying them at beaches in South Carolina and Georgia on regular summer trips with her friends. She was involved in sewing, quilting, painting, and cooking, but just as much in carpentry, financial management, and car maintenance.  Her mother-in-law once said of her, “Neta can do anything.”   She was a loving wife, mother, and grandmother, a faithful friend, one who served others with quiet effectiveness. 

Neta was preceded in death by her parents.  She is survived by her husband George, her sons Donovan, Wichita, Kansas, and Mark (and his wife, Marianna), Westport, Connecticut; and by four beloved grandchildren, Dr. Jayden McCall, Manhattan, Kansas; Alexander McCall, Brooklyn New York, William McCall, San Francisco, California, and Caroline McCall, Manhattan, New York.

At Neta’s request, cremation has taken place.  A memorial service will be held on Saturday November 8, at Central Presbyterian Church, 3501 Campbell, Kansas City, Missouri 64109, at 1:30 pm.  A reception will follow the service.  Interment of ashes will take place in the Shirley Tilford Memorial Garden at First Presbyterian Church, 525 North Broadway, Wichita, Kansas 67203 where a remembrance service will be held in the Chapel of the church at 10:30 am on Monday, November 10, 2025.  A reception will then be held in the Parlor. 

Those who wish to make a memorial contribution in Neta McCall’s honor may wish to consider a gift to Central Presbyterian Church, Kansas City, or First Presbyterian Church, Wichita.